Message-ID: <YGBUf6aQhlBzP+a+@kroah.com>
Date:   Sun, 28 Mar 2021 12:03:43 +0200
From:   Greg KH <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To:     Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@...mhuis.info>
Cc:     ksummit <ksummit-discuss@...ts.linuxfoundation.org>,
        Sasha Levin <sashal@...nel.org>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
        Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@...radead.org>,
        linux-doc@...r.kernel.org,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [1/5] reporting-issues: header and TLDR

On Sun, Mar 28, 2021 at 11:23:30AM +0200, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> On 26.03.21 07:15, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> > On 26.03.21 07:13, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> >>
> >> Lo! Since a few months mainline in
> >> Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst contains a text written
> >> to obsolete the good old reporting-bugs text. For now, the new document
> >> still contains a warning at the top that basically says "this is WIP".
> >> But I'd like to remove that warning and delete reporting-bugs.rst in the
> >> next merge window to make reporting-issues.rst fully official. With this
> >> mail I want to give everyone a chance to take a look at the text and
> >> speak up if you don't want me to move ahead for now.
> >>
> >> For easier review I'll post the text of reporting-issues.rst in reply to
> >> this mail. I'll do that in a few chunks, as if this was a cover letter
> >> for a patch-set. 
> > Here we go:
> > [...]
> > Reporting issues
> > ++++++++++++++++
> > 
> > The short guide (aka TL;DR)
> > ===========================
> > 
> > [...]
> 
> 
> FWIW, on another channel someone mentioned the process in the TLDR is
> quite complicated when it comes to regressions in stable and longterm
> kernels. I looked at the text and it seemed like a valid complaint, esp.
> as those regressions are something we really care about.
> 
> To solve this properly I sadly had to shake up the text in this section
> completely and rewrite parts of it. Find the result below. I'm quite
> happy with it, as it afaics is more straight forward and easier to
> understand. And it matches the step-by-step guide better. And the best
> thing: it's a bit shorter than the old TLDR.
> 
> I'll wait a day or two and then will send it through the regular review
> together with a few small other fixes that piled up for the text, just
> wanted to add it here for completeness.
> 
> ---
> The short guide (aka TL;DR)
> ===========================
> 
> Are you facing a regression with vanilla kernels from the same stable or
> longterm series? One still supported? Then search the `LKML
> <https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/>`_ and the `Linux stable mailing list
> <https://lore.kernel.org/stable/>_` archives for matching reports to
> join. If you don't find any, install `the latest release from that
> series <https://kernel.org/>`_. If it still shows the issue, report it
> to the stable mailing list and the stable maintainers.
> 
> In all other cases try your best guess which kernel part might be
> causing the issue. Check the :ref:`MAINTAINERS <maintainers>` file for
> how its developers expect to be told about problems, which most of the
> time will be by email with a mailing list in CC. Check the destination's
> archives for matching reports; search the `LKML
> <https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/>`_ and the web, too. If you don't find
> any to join, install `the latest mainline kernel
> <https://kernel.org/>`_. If the issue is present there, send a report.
> 
> If you would like to see the issue also fixed in a still supported
> stable or longterm series, install its latest release. If it shows the
> problem, search for the change that fixed it in mainline and check if
> backporting is in the works or was discarded; if it's neither, ask those
> who handled the change for it.
> 
> **General remarks**: When installing and testing a kernel as outlined
> above, ensure it's vanilla (IOW: not patched and not using add-on
> modules). Also make sure it's built and running in a healthy environment
> and not already tainted before the issue occurs.
> 
> While writing your report, include all information relevant to the
> issue, like the kernel and the distro used. In case of a regression try
> to include the commit-id of the change causing it, which a bisection can
> find. If you're facing multiple issues with the Linux kernel at once,
> report each separately.
> 
> Once the report is out, answer any questions that come up and help where
> you can. That includes keeping the ball rolling by occasionally
> retesting with newer releases and sending a status update afterwards.
> 
> ---

The above looks good to me, thanks for doing this work.

greg k-h

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